Made in Merseyside Insider breakfast

MERSEYSIDE

REGIONAL REVIEW
MERSEYSIDE
SPONSORED BY
Gleaves
MERSEYSIDE
CAN BE A
GLOBAL
PLAYER
•
Businesses in Liverpool city
region can make their mark
on the world stage
That was the upbeat message at Insider’s
Made in Merseyside breakfast, held at
12 Princes Dock, Liverpool, where an
80-strong audience heard from a range of
speakers including Dr Jonathan Hague, vice
president of open innovation at Unilever; Peter
Taylor, managing director of Hotter Shoes;
and James Maddocks, director of Radwraps.
Michael Gleaves is the head
of business development at the Science
and Technology Facilities Council’s Hartree
Centre. He said: “We’ve got £50m of the
world’s finest computers and data analytics
at Daresbury that can be applied to your own
situation. Business generates a lot of data
but much of it is unstructured. We apply new
analytic techniques and machine learning to
help you understand that data to allow you to
make business decisions.”
The government has invested £113m in
high-performance computing capability at
Sci-Tech Daresbury’s Hartree Centre, which
will be used to help give UK businesses a
two-year headstart over international rivals.
The centre is being supported by IBM with a
package of technology and on-site expertise.
The Chancellor, George Osborne, has
been a regular visitor of the facility and said
that he believes “science lies at the heart of
our plan to build a Northern Powerhouse”.
Gleaves said: “We’re working with Unilever,
Rolls-Royce and Bentley but want to work
with more businesses from the region to
make the Northern Powerhouse a success.”
Dave Cockerill is the business
development director at Acoustic Sensing
Technology. The company used to be
based at The Innovation Centre, in Sci-Tech
Daresbury, but has now moved to Speke.
The business has pioneered a product called
the SewerBatt, which uses acoustic sensing
technology to survey piping. It’s quicker
and cheaper than CCTV surveys and the
technology has attracted interest from around
the world.
Cockerill said: “Acoustic sensing technology
is only two years old but we have grown
turnover to £500,000 and are getting more
interest globally. Our technology can work
anywhere. We’ve sold products in the UK and
Australia and trials are taking place in Europe
and the US. We think we can be a real success
story for the region.”
Amanda Pitcher is the
managing director of Powder Systems
Limited (PSL), based at Liverpool Estuary
Business Park. Its customers include Pfizer
and it operates worldwide, including in the
US, France, Czech Republic, India, Australia
and Singapore. The company is set to do
£7.9m of turnover in 2014/15 and £10.7m in
2015/16. It’s also setting up PSL Centre of
Process Excellence in Philadelphia.
Pitcher said: “The key is thinking globally
and acting locally. It’s important to have an
understanding of our international customers
and provide excellent customer service.
“I’m excited by the future. Opening the
centre in Philadelphia gives us a new
dimension. Being based in Merseyside for
26 years ago has been good for our business.
The travel links are also good and this is
important as we are exporting 97 per cent of
what we make. The biggest challenge is the
currency fluctuations, especially the strength
of the pound against the euro. We have
substantial competitors based in mainland
Europe.”
Chris Eccles is managing director
of ChargePoint Technology and oversaw
a management buyout of the business in
2009. The company manufactures valves
for the safe transfer of powders. Since the
buyout, turnover has risen from £1.7m to
nearly £8m. Staff numbers have increased
to 65 and next year ChargePoint is moving
to a new 22,000 sq ft purpose-built facility.
Eccles said: “Merseyside is becoming
a better place to do business. There’s a
culture of innovation. People are starting to
agree with each other to get things done.”
Cockerill
Pitcher
Eccles
insider JANUARY 2016
insider JANUARY 2016